LEXINGTON,
Ohio (July 18, 2010) -
Just when everything was falling into place, the entire
apple cart was overturned today in AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented
by
AMSOIL at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Last year's Daytona SportBike
Champion Danny
Eslick took a hard-fought victory today and with this year's
championship
points leader Josh Herrin suffering a dramatic fall on the last lap,
Eslick
and his GEICO Powersports team have pulled themselves right back into
the thick
of the championship battle. Herrin and
his Team Graves Yamaha team now lead Eslick by only two points, 249-247.

The
21-lap race at Mid-Ohio began somewhat like yesterday's
event, with furious action at the front involving yesterday's main cast,
Eslick, Herrin, Martin Cardenas (M4 Monster Energy Suzuki), Bobby Fong
(DNA
Energy Drink Ducati), Herrin's Team Graves Yamaha teammate Tommy Aquino
and
Team Latus Motors Ducati rider Steve Rapp. These six riders once again
made a break and dueled back and forth,
exchanging the lead lap after lap, sometimes two or three times per
lap. Eslick would lead, Cardenas showed his speed
with a nice outside pass into first at the end of the back straight,
then
Herrin would reassert himself back at the front.

Under partly
cloudy but hot and humid
conditions, something had to give and it happened as the leaders were
finishing
the eleventh lap. Coming through the
Carousel corner, Cardenas went down and Herrin had to take evasive
action, allowing Fong, Rapp and Aquino quickly by. Eslick was in front
and didn't really know
what happened until after the race but this gave him the break he needed
to
consolidate his second win of the season and vault him right back into
the chase
for the championship. In a great display
of courage, Cardenas picked up his Suzuki and continued to the finish,
and his persistence was rewarded as he ended up fifth at the flag.

Another
rider who stayed the course all day
was Aquino, who raced hard with Fong, Rapp and Herrin as well and took
home a solid fourth place finish. Gathering
his second consecutive podium finish was Fong. He has been showing good
speed so far this
season but this weekend at Mid-Ohio he really showed his great potential
with another strong run up front all day. It was only the hard riding of
another Ducati rider, Rapp that
prevented Fong from another second place. Rapp, who started strong
yesterday but ran into some mechanical issues,
came back today and contended all the way and took a well deserved
second place
for his close knit Team Latus Motors team.

In a cruel twist of
fate, as Herrin headed into
turn six at the end of the long Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course backstraight
for the
last time, his motorcycle seemed to twitch and the next thing you knew,
he was down. Rapp and Fong were quickly by
as Herrin struggled to pick up and restart his Yamaha. He did so and to
cheers from the appreciative
crowd, he slowly rode back around on the damaged bike to post a 19th
place finish, thereby scoring two valuable points. P.J. Jacobsen ran
well again but was passed
on the last lap by Cardenas; Jacobsen still had a solid weekend on his
Celtic Racing
Suzuki.

Cory West took seventh on his
Vesrah Suzuki, Josh Day, the 2009 SuperSport Young Gun East Division
Champion
ran well again on his Four Feathers Racing Yamaha, finishing eighth.
After making a change in his Dunlop tire
choice, Fernando Amantini took a nice ninth place finish aboard his
Kawasaki
followed by Kris Turner in tenth on his Turner Cycle Racing Suzuki.

The
AMA Pro Daytona SportBike riders will reassemble next
weekend in California for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The Daytona
SportBikes will race on Sunday, prior to the MotoGP
event. Please visit www.mazdaraceway.com for schedule
and
ticket information. Also check out SPEED
TV's coverage of all of the weekend Daytona SportBike action. Visit www.speedtv.comfor the broadcast
times in your area.

SPEED will have flag-to-flag
coverage of all National Guard SuperBike and Daytona SportBike races
from Mid-Ohio in same weekend broadcasts. Tonight's broadcast begins at
12:00 a.m. midnight ET. A full TV schedule can be found at http://www.speedtv.com/schedule/filter/program/948061.